A Brief History On December 13, 2019 (Friday the 13th for those that keep track of such things), we have the good fortune of the widespread release of the latest movie in the Jumanji franchise, Jumanji: The Next Level. The Jumanji saga started with a book by Chris Van Allsburg in 1981, and hit the big screen in 1995 with a film starring Robin Williams. The franchise got a major boost with the 2017 film, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the success of which guaranteed this latest sequel. Digging Deeper The first Jumanji movie had a budget of $65 million…
Browsing: December 13
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A Brief History On December 13, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) heard arguments in a lawsuit by Norma McCorvey (known as “Jane Roe” for the purposes of the lawsuit) against the Dallas County (Texas) Attorney Henry Wade in the landmark American court case about the subject of a woman’s right to seek an abortion, ending an unwanted pregnancy. The case is formally knowns as Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) and ever since the decision was handed down in January of 1973 the case has been a topic of heated debate between “Pro-Life” (aka, anti-abortion)…
A Brief History On December 13, 2017, our Jewish friends celebrate the Festival of Lights and the Feast of Dedication, known better as Hanukkah. Right off the bat, the confusion starts with the spelling of “Hanukkah!” You may find this word spelled several different ways, so just pick the one you like. No matter how you spell it, Hanukkah adds up to 8 Crazy Nights! Digging Deeper Celebrated to commemorate the founding of the Second Temple, Hanukkah rites center around an 8 candle candelabrum called a menorah, with a ninth candle holder holding a candle called a Shamash, usually in…
A Brief History On December 13, 1945, Irma Ida Ilse Grese, age 22, was executed in accordance with her sentence of death for the crime of committing War Crimes (Crimes Against Humanity) for her service as a concentration camp guard at Ravensbruck and Auschwitz Nazi death camps during World War II. Digging Deeper The apparently attractive young lady thus became the youngest female executed by British authorities during the 20th Century. Irma was born in 1923 to a dairy working family in Germany, but her mother committed suicide by drinking acid in 1936, after finding out her husband was having…
A Brief History On December 13, 1294, Pope Celestine V, also known as Saint Celestine, resigned from the office of Pope of the Roman Catholic Church after only five months as pope. An ineffective and incompetent pope, Celestine pulled stunts such as appointing several people to the same high position and acting as a puppet for King Charles II of Naples. The successor to Celestine as Pope, Boniface VIII, imprisoned Celestine and overturned the various decrees Celestine managed to publish. One of these decrees was the right of a Pope to abdicate, the right under which Celestine quit. Obviously, both…
